This article was originally published in The Hamilton Spectator, and written by Jeff Mahoney. Photo credits go to Gary Yokoyama. Click here for the published article. By: Jeff Mahoney At Hamilton Youth Poets, the loaf of the spoken word gets broken open. Or maybe the life of the broken world gets spoken open. Same thing.…

Hamilton Youth Poets attended the 41st Annual CommUNITY Prayer Breakfast this morning (May 3rd, 2016). It was absolutely incredible! Thank you to the committee for having us and their wonderful keynote speaker Lishai Peel, who shared her incredible story and inspired us to further our actions! She also shared the stage with HYP poet Eddie…

Ward 3 Councillor Matthew Green was a judge at our Slam Finals on April 24th, 2016! The picture above shows him sporting HYP’s new snapback’s with this year’s theme “Be The Word”. Merch will be available throughout the whole festival from May 6th-14th! Take a picture with one of our posters and tweet us…

LittleSister joins us as a Women in Hip Hop panelist and judge at Emcee Olympics on Thursday, May 12th, 2016! Her production has been highlighted by the best Hip Hop outlets and platforms around the world. We can’t wait to hear her thoughts on today’s industry! LittleSister is a Canadian hip-hop, dance and R&B…

Keysha Freshh joins us as a Women in Hip Hop panelist and judge at Emcee Olympics on Thursday, May 12th, 2016! Hot off her TeamBackPack International Women’s Day Cypher, this women is a force in Toronto’s Hip Hop community! We are so excited to have her! In a historically male dominated industry, female MC’s…

IAN FRENCH aka IF THE POET joins us as a judge at our Finals Night on May 14th, 2016. IF’s poems channel the wisdom of Spirit, the rage of the wounded and the yearning that resides in every human heart. He says “every poem I write is a ‘shout out’ to the sacredness of…

The featured image in this article belongs to the Hamilton Steelworkers. To view more images from the event, please click here. This article was originally published in The Hamilton Spectator, and is written by Joel OpHardt. Click here for the published article. By: Joel OpHardt, The Hamilton Spectator Disappointed by community backlash of the refugee crisis,…

This article was originally published in The Silhouette, McMaster University’s student newspaper. Click here for the published article. By: Yara Farran I’m currently sitting in a near-empty classroom. Some students are participating in an impromptu calculus study session. I can hear the anxiety in their voices as they discuss inverse functions. But I can tell that…

By: Tobi Abdul In the spoken word community, a common phrase repeated throughout the poetry slam is “it’s not about the points, it’s about the poetry.” For an outsider watching a slam, which is rooted in competition, these words may not make much sense, but for a poet, these words are our guiding principles. The…

Hamilton Youth Poets is pleased to announce that Hamilton’s own Lee Reed will be a judge for the Emcee Olympics at this year’s Louder Than A Bomb Canada: Youth Poetry Festival. From Lee’s website: Lee Reed is a Hamilton O.G. and a veteran of the Kanadian Indie music scene. For 19 years he’s been stomping stages…

Hamilton Youth Poets is pleased to announce that Kobi, frontman for Canadian Winter, will be a judge for the Emcee Olympics at this year’s Louder Than A Bomb Canada: Youth Poetry Festival. From Canadian Winter’s Facebook Page: Deep in the heart of Ontario, in Winter 2009, four souls combined to tell a story.…